Monday, 6 May 2013

Sweat, Tears, or the Sea!

Hola!

Sending love from the Dominican Republic :)

I can hardly believe that today is that last day of my first transfer!
Time is absolutely flying.

So, we found out Sunday night what would be going on in the upcoming transfer with all of the new girls coming in, and honestly I was really stressed about it. I knew that I wouldn't be training, but besides that, I had no idea.

All week Hermana Laughlin and I would just start coming up with the most ridiculous ideas we could. aka, "They're going to send me to the islands alone with one of the stray dogs as my companion" and, "You're going to be training all of the new sisters at once, and you will all have to live in this tiny house."

But I also kept joking that they were going to make Hermana Laughlin my companion and that she would have to finish my training, and that we would just be lost and confused and never understand what anyone was saying! We would always crack up afterwards and I would say, "Yeah, like they'd be dumb enough to put us crazies together, no one could handle that companionship..." I think I even told her one time "Pshh, if you finished my training, I'd end up dumber than I was when I started!!" (super sarcastic, don't worry anyone, she knew I was joking)

Haha! But apparently this is one of those "be careful what you wish for moments!" Because guess who my new companion is??.... yupp, Hermana Laughlin!! She is finishing my training, and Hermana Prestwich is getting 2 brand new companions to train! So all 5 of us will be crammed into the house!

This transfer is going to be tough, but all joking aside, I also really feel like there is no one I would rather struggle through it with. I already know that I am going to laugh more this transfer than any other. We will both be stretched, and I really hope that my Spanish and mostly my understanding of spanish, will grow because I really won't have any other choice.

We'll still be here in Gazcue, but I'll be serving in her area of the city (new area for me), which is literally across the street from the ocean -- such a tender mercy for me. It always reminds me of the quote:

"The cure for anything is saltwater -- sweat, tears, or the sea"

Well, looks like I'll be getting a little bit of everything!

But I really will miss the people I've been teaching! I really should talk about them more! We are teaching two younger girls, age 10 and 15, who are getting baptized this month if all goes as planned. They are super awesome and excited, I'm lucky that I'll at least still be able to attend their baptism, cuz I will still be so close!

Also, this is a picture from last week with one of our investigators, Winifer, she is 14 and super smart.

I love them so much! Not all our investigators are this young, but they were the ones that came to mind as I was typing.

Miriam, on the left, is a member of the church, and neighbor of Winifer, in the center -- she is the best!

(also sometimes when I'm walking around I forget that I'm white...

then I look at pictures and remember...)

That's all for this week, I wish I had more time to post! So much happens every week, and I feel like I never have time to share it all! I hope that I'm keeping a balance between my obnoxious self and the spiritual.

My testimony grows every day as I teach and study.

Everything I see in this world reminds me of my Heavenly Father.

He really has given me all of these things for my own happiness.

There is no way that all of this life and personality and love just happened by coincidence.

He knows me and He loves me and if you don't feel like you have that knowledge, then I would encourage you to pray about it and then just watch.

Everything we have is from a Heavenly Father who knows and loves us and blesses us every single day.

Each trial or struggle is to teach us something and, in the end, we are better for it.

much love

Hna Coe

P.S. Stay tuned for the bunk bed saga next week -- its a great great story!

Here's some pictures:

These pictures are of my district and zone from this transfer (smaller group is district and the larger group is my zone)

So for anybody who doesn't know missions are incredibly organized in a pyramidy way. You have your Companion, and then next is your District, and one elder is assigned to be the "district leader". Then based on where you are, a group of Districts makes up your Zone. Every night we call and tell our district leader about our day and he is the person we call if we have a question or need help, and if he can't answer, we just kind of move up the line from there. It really is incredibly efficient & smart! I don't think the Mission President would survive if we directed every single question at him; it just wouldn't be possible.

I hope that kind of helps, I know I use a lot of mission terminology on here, so please let me know if you want me to explain anything! Sometimes I just forget what people know or don't know who aren't members of the church, or even those who are, I know that I didn't totally get how it all worked before getting out here!

I'm learning as I go and happy to teach!

My Zone (for the past 3 weeks)

My District

This is our transportation!

I know I described "Guaguas" before, but now I've tried capture it in a picture! The picture of Hna Laughlin is from my perspective, and the other is from hers. The door is always open and a man kind of hangs half way out of it yelling and looking for people that want to get on. It was moving when they took the picture and I was hanging on to the door for dear life, but really I do absolutely love it:)

Thanks for the package, Grandma Irene!

You are the best.

We finally have POT HOLDERS in our house, which sounds dumb that I was so stoked, but really, I was getting sick of trying to use nasty rags to pick up our hot metal pans, and the best part is these ones are hand made, which makes them 10 times better.

All four of us, crammed in our little house, thank you!

So, I hope you all aren't going to get sick of pictures of my nasty feet...

I'm just so proud of these tan lines :-)

They're beauts, I tell you!

It's not every day you get honored with striped, stinky feet pictures, I'm sure.

Also pictures of my old nasty planner I never got a chance to decorate and my new pretty one! Hna Avery put it all together for me and specifically chose everything out with a sweet note explaining why she had chosen them for me! I absolutely love it, especially since I have to look at it every single day. And I was thinking if any of the cousins, or anyone for that matter, wants to make covers for me I would love to use them, or even write a note that I could use to cover the back? I don't know if I'm making any sense, but I measured them and each rectangle is 8cm wide by 14cm or 5&1/2 inches long. Aubrye's cute papers with quotes made me think of it!

The quote from Sister Hinckley is one of my favorites! I've been trying hard to apply it in my life.

"The trick is to enjoy life.

Don't wish away your days waiting for better ones ahead."

I was cracking up last week, though, because I wrote it on the back of an envelope of a letter I was sending to Katherine, and then in another spot I had written "almost at 3 months... but who's counting" Haha, oops, kinda contradicting, but hey, I'm a work in progress, alright!?!!

Also, the flowers on the back were how I kept track of my contacts each day, ran out of space though, but it was neat to see them add up, more meaning than just some doodles.